


Loving a Boy Genius

by CatherineGracey



Category: Scorpion (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Harvard University, High School, Multi, genius
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-11
Updated: 2015-12-13
Packaged: 2018-05-06 03:24:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,376
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5401196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CatherineGracey/pseuds/CatherineGracey
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>**Year is 2021 (Six Years from now, so Ralph is 16 years old)</p>
<p>Ralph is in high school now but is also studying for his third degree in MIT University. She is a friend from his high school who also secretly studies at university. Both of them bond, but Ralph's family knows nothing about his new friend until she surprises him one day at the garage. What will happen? With all of her issues, will his family allow them to stay friends? Can their friendship become more?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One: Meeting the Family (if however briefly...)

She knocked on the door, the clanging making her ears hurt, because the door was not made of wood, but of metal. No one answered so she went around the side and saw the entrance to the actual garage. Walking inside, she could see a few people so called out. “Hello?”

A man in a shirt (sleeves rolled up), a tie and slacks walked up to her, hands shoved deep into his pockets. “Can I help you?”

She nodded. “Yeah, I am actually looking for Ralph, is he here? He said he would catch up with me twenty minutes ago and he never showed up.” He looked at her with slight surprise, but he hid it well. She knew enough about human behaviour to realise that it was not every day that someone came to find Ralph at the garage. She inwardly smiled at the thought.

The man turned and called out, “Paige! There is someone here for Ralph!” She raised her eyebrows at him. Why wouldn’t he just call Ralph?

A woman’s voice, presumably Paige, answered him, “What?”

The man looked at her, up and down, assessing her. She assessed him as well. He must be Walter. Ralph had described him to her in great detail. His curly black hair wasn’t typical of Ireland, but maybe he had some middle eastern or Indian ancestors in his linage. He definitely seemed intelligent, which would fit perfectly, if this man was indeed Walter O’Brien, Ralph’s adoptive father. She raised her eyebrows mockingly and he smirked. “Follow me. What’s your name?” 

She was just about to answer when she heard footsteps running down stairs, and Ralph call out, “Cat! What are you doing here?”

She rolled her eyes. “You were supposed to meet me twenty minutes ago, moron. So I tracked you down. Now let’s go. We have a schedule to keep, unless you want to be late. Again.”

The woman, Paige, came into view. She was beautiful, with short dark blonde hair and an amazing smile. “Again? Ralph, what is this about? Who is this?” 

“Mum, I have to go. It’s almost time!” Ralph looked at his watch. “Crap! We are gonna be late!” He dragged Cat out of the garage, grabbing his bag on the way. Walter and Paige followed the two, wondering where they were going and who the hell the girl was. Both parents stopped suddenly when they saw the car that they two were getting into. A sleek, white Audi R8. Cat was getting into the driver seat and Ralph was sitting shotgun. 

As the car sped off, Paige and Walter looked at each other. What the hell had just happened?

___

Catherine ‘Cat’ Greyson drove like hell towards the observatory. She didn’t want to miss the first sighting of the new constellation group of the year! And neither did the guy sitting next to her. “Ralph, were they your parents? Didn’t they know that we were going to the observatory together tonight?”

“I did not mention it to them, because Uncle Toby would have found out and I would have never been able to get away from his constant psychoanalysis. He is a genius with little personal boundaries when it comes to others,” he mumbled. 

She wasn’t perturbed by this. In fact, she had never mentioned Ralph to her parents either. Her reasoning was the they were all the way in Australia, but she just didn’t like to talk to them. At all. She never wanted to be associated with people who thought had sent her to the US for ‘help’ with her mental ‘instability and challenges’. She hated the terms. She hated her parents. She had a higher IQ than most but because she didn’t believe in God and Jesus, there was something immediately wrong with her. Every time they called her ‘doctor’ to see how she was doing, it was actually her with a voice dubbing software that Ralph had given to her. As far as her parents were concerned, she was locked up in the hospital getting treatment.

Speaking of which, her phone rang. Caller ID was amazing. She looked at Ralph and he nodded at her, gesturing that he would answer the phone for her. She kept driving as he answered. “Hello Dr Tobias Curtis speaking. No, she is receiving part of her treatment now and it really cannot be interrupted. Good day, Mrs Greyson.” He placed her phone back. “Cat, you have to tell them someday. You are staying in the US permanently, aren’t you?”

She nodded. “Yes, I am. I got my residency when I helped on the New Jersey law case that the feds had trouble with.”

“So what the hell are you waiting for?”

She sighed. “I am waiting for the day that they forget about me and I never have to do anything with them again.”

“You are siphoning money from them, Catherine!”

“No, they are paying for my ‘treatment’. It’s money that they would usually spend on actually raising me. And besides, all that cash goes towards my university education, food and rent. I use government money for my other stuff. Like this beautiful car!” She ran her hands fondly over the steering wheel. It had cost her three court cases and four months of meticulous saving for this car, but it was so worth it. It was one of her three joys in life, after her learning and friendship with Ralph. She glanced over at the boy sitting next to her quickly. He had his head turned towards the side window, obviously calculating different things in his head. 

She wished her brain was hardwired the same way his was sometimes. Instead, whenever someone spoke, her mind immediately translated it into over thirty different languages. She constantly had a headache because of it, but now it was just a dull ache in the back of her head. She got used to it a while ago. Just as she got used to the feeling she had developed for Ralph. She knew he would never feel the same way she did, but she couldn't help it. He had helped her through so much and she couldn't help but fall for him. He was socially awkward, brilliant, kind, brave, caring, sweet, thoughtful and, of course, intelligent. 

And she loved every bit of him. But she would never say anything about it to him. She sighed softly and continued driving, weaving through traffic with the precision of a stunt driver or Formula One racer.

 

They spent the rest of the drive, in fact, the night, in silence, watching the sky happily.

___

Meanwhile, Walter was hacking into everything he could to find out who the girl with Ralph was. Usually, Paige would call him overprotective, but this time, she was encouraging. While she paced around the room, Walter had Happy tracking the car on security cameras, Sylvester hacking the Australian embassy for her identity and Toby analysing her character with what they found on her. Once they found her name, Walter searched for her in every single database they had access to, which was every single database that was not air-gapped.

“Got something!” He scanned over the files. “Trained lawyer and economist, fluent in 70+ languages and studying at Harvard for social sciences. She seemed to have helped the district attorneys of New York, California, Delaware, Florida, Texas and New Jersey put away over twenty criminals that would have been acquitted if it weren’t for her expertise. Australian, no criminal record, recently granted American residency. She looks alright actually.”

“Hey guys, they pulled into the observatory. She drives like me,” Happy commented.

“She isn’t a danger to Ralph is she?” Paige asked, extremely worried about her sixteen year old son. He had never done anything where he didn’t at least tell someone in the cyclone what he was doing. 

“Mom?” a small voice called out. Paige turned to see her little girl Aine walking towards her, finished with the Rubik’s Cube that Toby had muddled for her. The four year old skipped towards her mother, the Cube held in front of her. “I’m done!” She looked around. “Where’s Ralph? He promised to play with me tonight.”

Sylvester piped up. “Ralph has gone out tonight, Aine. But I can play with you instead!”

The little girl ran over to the human calculator happily, and he led her away to play a game of chess. The rest of the team turned back to their work; making sure that Cat - Catherine as they had come to learn - was not a danger to Ralph and would not hurt him. He had been hurt by a friend before and they didn’t want that to happen again.

Toby looked over the few photos that they had managed to find on the girl, analysing her likely behaviour. “Her family are probably deep Catholics. Her mom’s dress is very modest with a cross necklace and her dad seems strict, with the way his hand is clenching onto the girl’s shoulder, making her grimace in slight pain. The several images of Jesus in their living room suggests borderline fanaticism. If she is a genius, or even borderline genius, she would never believe in God, therefore her father probably had a very heavy hand with her.

“Catherine Greyson is not a danger to anyone, least of all Ralph. Judging off this recent photo that we got when we hacked Ralph’s high school website, she may even be in love with him.” Toby sent the photo to the big screen, so everyone could see it. The image depicted Ralph and the girl they had seen earlier at a school swimming carnival (wearing the school colours). Catherine’s arms were wrapped around Ralph from behind and her head on his shoulder, as she was standing on a higher ledge. While Ralph looked a bit stiff, he was smiling at the camera, obviously taken by a teacher or another student. Catherine, however, was looking towards Ralph’s cheek with a massive smile.

Paige’s heart melted when she saw the picture. Her son actually looked somewhat comfortable in the arms of a girl. He may be finally connecting on an extremely personal level. And with such a beautiful girl. Remembering the girl from earlier, her long light brown hair, short stature and bright intelligent caramel coloured eyes - she was very pretty.

“Okay, now that we know that she is definitely not a danger to Ralph, we can stop the background check.” Walter stood from his desk chair, and shoved his hands into his pockets, looking at his wife. Paige smiled back at him and stretched out her hand for him. Like a moth to light, Walter gravitated towards her. His feet seemed to move of his own accord, until he was close enough to grip her hand. “We can talk to him when he gets home. He should be home by ten.”

She nodded. “Yeah, we can ask him later.” Looking quickly at Aine completely enthralled playing with Sylvester, she smirked. “Right now, I need you.”

He looked at her slightly surprised. “Right now?” She nodded again. “Okay.” Walter dragged Paige upstairs for an hour or so, happily distracting her from her motherly instincts.


	2. Chapter 2: Learning more

When Ralph got home, he was slightly concerned. He knew that by now, the rest of Scorpion had checked up on his friend. He also knew that not telling some of the smartest people in the world about his friend had its risks, but he couldn't help it. He just didn’t want to talk to them about her. She was special to him… as a friend. 

He waved as Cat sped off in her fancy car. Working cases for the government had its perks, including cash, connections etc. Like, for example, even though she was still not legally able to drive, she had her full licence and was definitely good at it. It was something that even though Scorpion had connections with Homeland Security, it wasn’t that great. 

Unlocking the door and going inside, he was not surprised to find his mother and father waiting for him. His sister was probably already asleep. “Ralph! You have a lot of explaining to do young man!” Paige yelled. She was not pleased at all. 

Ralph looked his dad. Walter just shoved his hands in his pockets and stepped back slightly, letting Ralph know that he was on his own against his mother. “Mom, it’s not a big deal. We went to the observatory to look at the new constellations of the season. It was fun.”

Paige looked at her son. He seemed to be happy with this friend of his. “You tell me everything about this girl, right now.”

“She is intelligent, brave and driven. She enjoys learning about science and math, which I can teach her, and I enjoy being in her company. It is also efficient to be around her in case I ever get arrested again.” Ralph smiled, thinking about her. “She has an exceptional ability to get me out of my head while in class, and drive my focus on more meaningful pursuits than mere thought.”

“Does she bring out your EQ, buddy?” Walter asked. He was not surprised with Ralph’s assessment of the girl, considering the images that Toby has deconstructed psychologically and the fact that only Paige could make him feel the same way that Ralph had described. When the young genius nodded, it was a happy moment for the parents.

“Invite her over tomorrow night darling. We would love to meet her. She sounds like an amazing girl,” Paige commented. 

“She has a university lecture tomorrow during the day,so she is flying to Massachusetts. Maybe the next day.” Ralph shuffled his feet.

Walter was curious about something else. “Is she a genius, Ralph? How old is she really?”

He was unsure of how to answer the question. “She is intelligent, however, I do not know how to classify her intelligence. Her proficiency does not lie with math and science. She can understand the basics, as in senior high school level and first year university or if I am able to explain a concept, however, she understands social sciences better. She understands language, law, economics, art, world culture and other sorts of things. So yes, she is a genius, but in her own way. She is sixteen like me.”

Walter frowned, not completely understanding. How could someone be a genius, but not in mathematics or science? It didn’t make much sense to him. He would just have to see for himself when he properly met her in a couple of days. 

___

Cat didn’t know what to think when Ralph invited her to dinner with the rest of his family. Besides the brief meeting she had with Walter O’Brien, she didn’t even get to say hi to his mother or the other people he constantly mentioned during their conversations. She was quite nervous of the outcome of this. If they didn’t like her, then they may ask Ralph to stay away from her and that would hurt her. 

She got onto her plane, heading back home from her lecture in Massachusetts, with the relevant papers to grade. She hardly gave lectures, the students not extremely happy that they were taught by someone so much younger than them, but sometimes she needed to. Harvard really wanted her to stay and be a permanent professor in their law school after she finished her third degree by correspondence. It was certainly something to think about accepting.

She managed to grade the papers on the seven hour flight back to LA, not really needing sleep. It was something that she and Ralph had in common. They usually stayed up, talking for hours by phone during the nights.

By the time the plane touched down at LAX, it was early morning. She jumped in a cab and got back to her apartment, desperately needing a shower. She hated the stale air of an aeroplane after a long flight. And it was at that moment when her parents decided to call her. And this time, they were not calling the doctor, but her. She answered, “Hello?”

“Hello Catherine. I trust you are doing well,” was her father’s, Gerrard’s’ reply.

“Yes, father. I am well.”

“I did not need the clarification! Speak when spoken to!”

Even in another country, her father was an asshole. Rolling her eyes, she just said, “Yes, father.” She couldn’t be bothered to argue with him right now. She was too tired and wanted to get the grime off herself.

“Good. Now, I have decided that your mother and I are going to come visit you in Los Angeles at your treatment centre. We shall be there in one week. You will show us your progress. We shall also be bringing a guest, so you need to be on your best behaviour. You know what will happen if you are not. Goodbye Catherine.” He hung up.

She sighed, then started to panic. One week?! How the hell was she going to get everything ready?!

Deciding on asking Ralph at school, she jumped in the shower.

 

Four hours later, she was walking to school with her books in hand, when someone came and tapped on her shoulder. Turning, Ralph came into her vision. “Hello,” she murmured. “I am not in the mood for school today.” 

“Then let’s go back to my place. My family are on a case, we will have the place to ourselves. Just use the voice dubbing software to get us out,” Ralph replied. Cat was surprised. Ralph had never said for them to just ditch school. He usually hated the school curriculum, but used the time to work on his own side projects. If, of course, she wasn’t helping him in Spanish and English Literature. 

Conceding to his suggestion, she nodded and pulled out her phone. “Okay. Let’s go. We can call from the car.”

Ralph took her hand and pulled her to her car, offering to drive. She handed her keys to him and smiled, trusting him to be perfectly okay with the car, even if he only had his learner's licence. She called the school as Ralph drove out, as Ralph’s mother. She didn’t have a guardian registered with the school, so it didn’t matter as much for her.

“Ralph? Can we go to the beach?” 

He shrugged. “Whatever you want.” 

She smiled happily. He never disagreed with her over something trivial like places to go, or things to eat, as he didn’t care about the outcome of her decision. They hit the highway, and Ralph hit the gas. 

___

At around two in the afternoon, the two friends made their way back to Ralph’s place, the garage empty because of the recent case. They were grateful for the privacy. Cat had told Ralph about her father’s phone call and they needed to devise a plan of attack for this problem. Ralph wanted to ask advice from his Uncle Toby because they had been using his name for a while to get away with what Cat was really doing. She didn’t mind the suggestion, however, she needed more information, so she hacked into the airport in Melbourne so she could find the flight her parents were going to be on, and delayed their travels. She made it seem as if her father had called and cancelled their tickets, but didn’t return the money into his account, instead intercepted the automatic wire transfer to send the money to a charity for children in Africa.

That would create some confusion when her parents went to the airport and tried to get their boarding passes. She also made sure that the plane was completely booked out, so they would have to wait for the next flight in a few days. Smiling to herself, she couldn’t wait for the phone call to say that the trip was delayed slightly. She would continue hacking the airline to give them the run around, and eventually her father would give up, hopefully. 

Ralph was silently working beside her on his own hacking, finding more and more information on her parents. The more he knew about the threat that Cat was facing, the more he could prepare to protect her. He didn’t know why he wanted her to stay so safe, but he couldn’t bare the thought of her being upset or hurt, by her own family no less. He looked up at the girl working beside him. He really enjoyed her company, just being beside her made him feel a little bit lighter inside. Hacking straight into her father’s computer, he found some very disturbing things. Horrified, he downloaded all the data from the computer that he could, determined to show it to Cabe. With what he had found on that computer, he should be locked up.

“Ralph, where’s the kitchen? I need food.” Cat’s remark had startled him from his analysis of the contents in front of him. He was very determined that she never find out what was on his laptop, so he shut the lid of it before leading her to the kitchen. 

Cat went about making them both sandwiches when she spotted a radio. “Oooh!” She turned it on and Ed Sheeran’s Thinking Out Loud, played through the kitchen. She smiled and grabbed Ralph’s hand, pulling him up from his seat. “Dance?” He immediately shook his head, just like she thought he would. She smiled reassuringly. “Come on. It’s mathematical. Think of it like a new equation to figure out.”

With this in mind, he placed his hand on her shoulder and held the other hand. She chuckled and moved the hand on her back down to the small of her back and they started moving to the beat. When that song ended, Ralph made no move to let her go, so they danced to the next song as well. And the next, and the next, relaxing more. Cat became sillier and sillier, while Ralph just smirked and laughed at her antics. They never realised that about half an hour had past, and the members of Scorpion had come back home. 

The two kids were lost in their own world of music and laughter, when they heard Toby calling out, “I am so hungry!” Cat and Ralph jumped slightly. Cat went back to her sandwich and Ralph sat at the table as he had before she had pulled him up. “Ralph! What are you doing here, bud?”

“Hi Uncle Toby. Cat and I came home early.”

Toby just stood there, psychoanalysing the two kids. Paige had come into the kitchen at the sound of Toby addressing Ralph. “Ralph, you are supposed to be in school!” She had her hands on her hips and was quite mad. 

Cat looked at her. “Please don’t be mad, Mrs O’Brien. He skipped school with me today. I was feeling awful and he just wanted to cheer me up.” Ralph was nodding to Cat’s statement. Toby caught the way Ralph and his friend were looking at each other, and she was slightly blushing. It seemed that something happened right before Toby entered the kitchen… And he was so determined to find out what!

Paige looked very surprised. “Oh… You asked my son to cheer you up?”

Cat shook her head. “No, he dragged me out of school to do it.” The whole team by now had migrated into the kitchen and were looking at Ralph with a sort of awe. He, on the other hand, was blushing like a crazy person. Walter placed his hand on the boy’s shoulder. He was proud of Ralph for connecting to this girl on such an emotional level that he was able to recognise her needs. Ralph had certainly developed more than Walter ever could and he was happy about it. This girl was obviously his emotional liaison. 

“Ralph, why don’t you introduce your friend to all of us properly?” Cabe asked. 

The young genius nodded. “Cat, that is Toby, Happy, Sylvester and Cabe, my mom Paige and my dad Walter.” He pointed at each person as he said their names. “Everyone, this is Catherine Greyson, my best friend.”

Everyone shook her hand, except for Paige, who pulled her into a hug. “So glad to meet you properly, Catherine.”

“Please, call me Cat. Ralph has told me so much about you all. The shrink who cannot help but psychoanalyse everyone; the brilliant mechanic who always manages to beat him in a Constructo-Battle; the brave mathematician with the many fears; and the federal agent who knows how to hit.” She purposefully stopped there.

Paige wondered why she stopped, but didn’t press her for answers. She seemed like a very nice girl, but of course, Toby had something to say. “You are a talented, you have a pen stuck behind your ear, so you constantly write things down, you clearly have a wit about you, but you’ve been through some hard times. Parental issues? You twitched. Father? You winced. You have an Australian accent, so you clearly moved here, probably to get away from your father.”

Cat didn’t bother to deny it. “You are correct. However, I haven’t gotten away from him. He sent me here. But that is a depressing story. Ralph said you invited me here for dinner tonight. I know I am here a bit early, but if you would still have me, I can cook dinner?”

“You cook?” Paige asked. 

Cat nodded. “My mother taught me when I was younger.” She grew sad for a moment then cheered up again. “Is that okay?” 

Paige smiled. “Sure. We can go shopping to get the meal you would like to cook, while Ralph works with Walter? I have to pick up my daughter from daycare too.” 

“Sure. If you don’t mind.”

Ralph watched his mother and his best friend walk out of kitchen, heading for the car outside. He was quite uncomfortable with them two together. Walter hit his son gently on the shoulder. “Come on buddy. We were making progress on your neuroscience theory.”

Ralph looked at Cat, walking towards the car with his mother and something stirred in the pit of his stomach, but he had no idea what it was.


End file.
